Week 15th June Blog
Hello everyone hope we are all well. Here is blog 13! I had lots of discussions with parents last week about speech and language so I thought this week we could concentrate on some speech and language, literacy and communication skills. As well as supporting these skills, in this week's activities your child will also learn in areas such as listening, taking turns, understanding and attention. These activities are super simple and may seem a bit pointless, your role in this sort of play and learning is the most important when teaching, supporting and playing with your child and if done regularly can be super beneficial to your child’s learning and development. Good luck Cherries!
Parents this week each day I would like you to fill a bag or a pillow case of toys or objects from around the home ready for your child. Sit in a quiet and clear space in your home. Shake the bag of objects to engage your child’s attention, you will find this works and makes them curious as to what is in the bag. Maybe talk about the noises they hear! Words like:
- Loud
- Quiet
- Rustling
- Chiming
- Clashing
- Clacking
- Banging etc. the words are endless to use they even may make their own up, go as far as you can with it.
Parents then to ask “What’s in the bag?” and each person to take turns to take an object out of the bag. Model and name the object and play with the toy with your child.
Top tip: Use simple language e.g. “car”, “blue car” when playing with the car keep to simple language “pushing the car”, “slow car”.
Do this with all objects in the bag until emptied, when you feel your child is losing interest with each object move on to the next. You can make the bag contents to whatever specification you like for your child to learn. Doing this daily can increase your child’s vocabulary, learn new words, how to put small sentences together, and to pronounce words clearly. Remember to replace the toys daily with some different ones.
Top Tip: during this activity when pulling the object out the bag hold it up to your face so your child is looking at you and your mouth when talking, also when pretending to play, such as eating an ice cream rubbing your tummy and saying “mmmmm yummy ice cream” Good luck.
Also this week why not create a “Conversation Station” (this can be on going during home schooling and is very informal) I will attach a picture below to give you an idea. Choose a book for the week or few books you can talk about. Have a go at tracing a small word or a letter of a main words (the sound) in the story or draw pictures, talk about the story, don’t forget how to hold you pen! Talk about the setting of the story such as if it was at a seaside:
- What do you find at the seaside?
- Have you been to the seaside? Who with? What did you do?
- What noises did you hear?
- Did you see or find any animals?
- What could you smell?
- What could this feel like?
Questions and talking are endless!
Gather props you could find around the house to support your story. You can revisit the story during the week or start a new story each time at the “Conversation Station” and add to your child’s learning. Leave your “Conversation Station” out so your child can access it any time. Remember parents you are modelling language all the time by supporting your child’s vocabulary, speech and language skills.
One thing we have been receiving during lockdown due to our fantastic delivery companies are letters, parcels and deliveries. Let’s create our own mail box at home by decorating an old shoe box, cereal box etc. Parents fill the box up with junk mail for your child to open. Talk about the colours, pictures, letters, help sort out by shape, size and even colour and count out how many pieces there are.
Extend this play: create a post office using stamps, envelops, paper, postcards, pens. Why not send something in the post to a family member.
In all of the activities above, you as parents can make it as easy or more difficult for your child’s needs and the possibilities can be endless.
Quick and simple activities this week:
Monday: Make a mud pie! Let’s see your potions, fairy soups and cakes. Words supporting this play – scoop, push, squidgy, soft, wet, moist, mix, pour, tip etc.
Tuesday: Construct a den – any theme, any den, big, small. Words supporting this activity – build, construct, camouflage, under, over, above, below, inside, outside, cover etc.
Wednesday: Draw as many shapes as possible get mum/dad to draw new shapes you might not already know! – circles, square, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, semi-circle, diamond, star, oval, heart.
Thursday: Go on a colour hunt! Mum/dad using something simple to represent a colour and ask your child to find something that is the same colour.
Friday: Sensory hunt! Go on the hunt for spikey, smooth, soft, hard, bumpy, light, heavy, squidgy, furry, rough – one rule it can’t come from your house!
In keeping with our communication and language theme the activities above help support this area. Remember parents you are the main teacher during all these activities and you are modelling speech and language all the time. Lots to do this week Cherries good luck and can’t wait to hear all about it. Parents drop me an email if you need anything. Take care and stay safe!
Claire